Sunday 31 October 2021

On the Temple

 

I’ve seen a warehouse when the consignment has shipped: swept bare, not a nail or speck of dust remains. If the body is a temple, as the Apostle says, so also the body’s mind.  You don’t allow heaps of rubbish lying around a temple, so less the body and even less the mind.

Piles of procrastination. Hoards of hurts. Caches of comparisons. Operas of offence. Bales of brawls and dramatic cavorting. Menageries of judgement. Cellars of self-congratulation.

Illness and mourning shock the body whether you’re consciously aware or not: energy leaks away like water. Change the stowage. Find chapels of healing; encompassed griefs; cloistered regrets swathed in prayers of humility.

What to bring to this space once you’ve removed the lumber? Trousseaux of thankfulness, gardens of good will, coffers of kindness. Pure intentions. Troves of tender regard. Gatherings of flowers, scripture, literature, art. Music, language of angels. Vast stores of memories. Many things are quicker to dismantle than build up. That accounts for gallons of slowness and tonnes of patience. Treasuries of mercy and lovingkindness.

‘We cannot know what God is, but rather what God is not’. Remotion, not names. No nail nor speck of dust remains.

No comments:

Post a Comment